Determinants of consanguinity and inbreeding coefficient in the multiethnic population of Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Article Category: Original article
Published Online: Dec 30, 2017
Page range: 451 - 460
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/abm-2018-0022
Keywords
© 2017 Muhammad Tufail et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
Background
Despite the high sociocultural preferences in contracting marriages among close relatives in Pakistan, marked regional differences exist in the prevalence of consanguinity. There is great interest to elucidate the sociodemographic variables underlying the heterogeneity in consanguinity prevalence in the various populations. The present study was conducted in the Mardan district of Pakistan, the second largest multiethnic Pashtun metropolis.
Objective
To find determinants of consanguineous unions.
Methods
In a cross-sectional study design, a convenience sample of 1,202 ever-married men from 3
Results
Consanguineous unions accounted for 44% of all marriages, and the inbreeding coefficient was calculated as 0.0258. Regression analyses revealed that 6 variables were significant predictors of consanguinity, namely, tehsil, age, year of marriage, caste (
Conclusions
The prevalence of consanguinity in the Mardan district was found to be lower than that in many other districts of Pakistan. National regional differences exist in consanguinity, and the combination of predictive factors varies greatly.